Shop Made Belt Sander

I needed a belt sander wide enough to sand down the corners of my box joints flush to the sides of the boxes I make. I had the belt custom made at an online store that does that, and I designed and built the sander. The sanding belt is 12” wide and 48” long.

Cool, Jerry! What material are you using for the rollers? What speed do you set the ShopSmith?

- CFrye

Originally I bought two rollers with bearings from Mcmaster Carr, but I ruined one of them, so I made the drive bearing out of PVC. I put plastic end caps in it reinforced with plywood. I used a piece of steel rod for the axle and some bearings I bought at Wilco are epoxied into the wood.

So far I’m using it at a slower speed, the speed setting for disk sanding. It seems to be adequate for my purpose and I don’t want to stress the thing too much.

-- There are good ships and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friendships and may they always be. http://www.geraldlhunsucker.com/

Hats off for this Jerry. That s a great idea. Is that spring on the side for tracking?

- doubleDD

Yes, the springs are captive and identical. I positioned the brackets for them in exactly the same place on both sides and just let the spring tension decide what the belt tension would be. It didn’t work out perfectly but I’m able to adjust the tracking by tightening or loosening the nuts.

-- There are good ships and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friendships and may they always be. http://www.geraldlhunsucker.com/

It’s nice to have a wide belt sander and a shop built one is even better.I am probably going to need to copy this soon as my Craftsman 4” wide sander is very old and the bearings are starting to scream! I don’t have a Shopsmith but I do have some motors.